I have a funny question for you all who are looking for a job. And, before I go any further, I want to disclose that I am a recruiter but I don't want to spam this board so I will not give out my contact info or company name. Please be honest in your answer but please do not be abusive. I am just a small, one-man shop but I believe that I am a very careful/honest recruiter who really takes care of both my candidates and my clients.
So my question is, say you are unemployed for a month or two and you have just been losing money because you are not getting a salary and all the expenses are coming out of your savings. Would you be interested in a service which says something like, "I am very good at what I do; try me for a month at half my normal salary. I am confident that you will love my work. If you love me, hire me permanent. And if you don't, send me back to the street"? It seems to me that this service would be attractive to you if you have been unemployed for a while because you have nothing to lose by an employer trying you out for a month at half price. And it would give you a huge advantage over other applicants. Basically this is contract-to-hire, except at a temporary discount. Discounts work in other industries so they might work here.
One thing I am afraid of is that the employer might think that you will work for a lower salary when hired perm, but we would put that in the initial contract with the employer. And generally speaking, I work with very good hiring managers who I trust a lot.
Now, let me clarify that in order to keep things simple, this service will only focus on permanent employees who are authorised to work in the USA -- because for the trial period, you will be my employee and I don't have the resources to handle H1B's/green cards and stuff.
So in summary, you offer yourself for a contract-to-hire trial at a half price for month, leading to a full time position if you perform excellently. And you should be authorized to work in the USA.
Would you be interested? If not, tell me why not? What am I missing? I have tentatively spoken to a few hiring managers and they seem to like the idea -- basically saying that something like this will put you in the front of the interview list.
And, I hope you won't mind a bit of self-promo at the end: if you are interested feel free to contact me and I will do the best to find you a position quickly -- but only if you are very, very good.